2020-02-22 Sat

Mir Mahbub Ali Khan was the sixth Nawab of Hyderabad; He is well known for his life of extravagance. He was born on 18 August 1866 at Purani Haveli in Hyderabad. He sat on the throne of Hyderabad in the year 1869 CE, at the age of three after the death of his father Afzal ud Daulah and ruled it till 1911 CE.

In the year 1879, he establishes the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway, the railway company owned by a Nizam. This introduction of the railway by Nizam is marked as the beginning of the industry in Hyderabad. This also gave Hyderabad four factories that were built from south and east of the Hussain Sagar Lake.

Mahboob Ali was a perfect example of a Victorian Prince. He had a great taste for western culture and modern ways of life. He was also very fluent in Urdu, Telugu and Farsi languages. He also used to write poems in Telugu and Urdu language. Apart from this Mir Mahbub Ali Khan was also a talented hunter, during his lifetime he had killed almost 30 tigers, due to his killing talent he is the title as ‘Tees Maar Khan’.

This pattern silver rupee was issued by him during his reign in Hyderabad. The weight of this coin is around 11.4g. The obverse of this coin is inscribed as ‘ Halli Yek Rupya,’ which means current 1 Rupee. The reverse of this coin is inscribed as ‘Hyderabad Deccan San 1294, legend within decorated border’.

Image Courtesy: Todywalla Auction